There are two very lovely videos of Olga Esina, Vienna Opera Ball 2012 and 2013, that show her linear, airy beauty as well as I've seen on tape. I believe that the announcers refer to her as "The Grace Kelly of Dance." I just looked up some pictures of Grace Kelly and there certainly is a resemblance.

Congratulations to soloist Andrei Yermakov on winning the Spirit of Dance prize in the category Rising Star. The prize is provided by the journal "Ballet" in tandem of the Ministry of Culture. Mariinsky site post is here:

Congratulations to soloist Andrei Yermakov on winning the Spirit of Dance prize in the category Rising Star. The prize is provided by the journal "Ballet" in tandem of the Ministry of Culture. Mariinsky site post is here:

Interesting!Merry Christmas, Catherine! By the way, do you happen to know who is the coach for Ekaterina Chebykina, who is dancing a number of Dryad Queens in January?? She is featured on the front page of the MT website for her debut as Cinderella stepsister, and I also saw a video of her with Komleva at a Concert Hall performance. Is Komleva her coach???

That I do not know. She graduated from Kiev School with honors in 2011, but I'm not sure if she has a dedicated pedagogue inside the theatre. (typically unless or until you're officially a soloist, you do not) She most likely is working with Komleva on certain roles... I will ask around.

Ekaterina Chebykina is quite familiar to the Japanese audience as Kiev Ballet frequently visits Japan. She was supposed to be in their tour which is currently running here, but as she is now with the Mariinsky she is not here. I have seen her several times (Aurora in a gala and other roles)

Thanks, Catherine, for sharing your very interesting article. Hopefully we can have some ongoing discussion of it here.

Could I please, for a few minutes, offer some general thoughts for the new season.

My ongoing interest in comparing the somewhat parallel development of Oxana Skorik and Olga Smirnova (Vaganova graduate now at Bolshoi) has somewhat heightened because of a video clip that I've been watching of Olga Smirnova (with Semen Chudin) performing Diamonds. This seems to be a more recent performance than the well received London one. I like Oxana Skorik very much lately for what seems to be her 'containment' of expressive 'genius' within her wonderful Mariinsky refinement. Olga Smirnova, on the other hand, appears to be highlighting this expressive 'genius' more. I do use the word genius sincerely in regard to both these remarkable young artists. In Olga Smirnova's Diamonds, although the expression is even more free flowing than before, her Vaganova-Mariinsky Grace and Refinement are equally evident. I look forward to seeing what direction this will take. For the moment, I find it to be exciting, highly interesting and immensely lovely.

Two other Mariinsky ballerinas that I tend to include in this 'ethereally lovely' grouping are Olga Esina and Alina Somova. I also greatly look forward to their future appearances as Olga Esina becomes more a part of the Mariinsky (once again) and Alina Somova, after the recent birth of her child, continues her return to active performing. In my viewing, both these artists have shown a foundation of exceptional and dreamlike Grace and Beauty.

Hi, naomi, and welcome to our discussions. Thank you for letting us know about Ekaterina Chebykina.

I've been to four or five full Lausanne competitions. (One day I saw fifty preliminary dancers perform twice. That's a lot of viewing (and a lot of dancing).) Based on the video you posted she compares very favorably. She has lovely qualities. I hope that she will be happy and have much success at the Mariinsky.

"[Evgeny] Ivanchenko believes the coach is a dancer’s most important relationship. “No matter how talented you are, you won’t become a great dancer without a good pedagogue. Pedagogues are 95 percent responsible for the outcome of a career, and the dancer is responsible for about 5 percent. Everything that I can do today, all that I have become, I owe to [Gennady] Selutsky.” "

I think that it's the huge range of considerations that your article implies that is so interesting.

"Selutsky says. He also pays close attention to the artistry. “The dramatic elements must be like a dialogue, with pauses and reactions, not just set on automatic. The dancer has to understand the goal of what’s being expressed.” "

“You need a tea-colored flower to match the accents on the tutu,” [Lubov] Kunakova says.

"Strong emphasis is made on body placement in each step. “Don’t let your head go forward during the landing, and be sure the head goes down before the final pose.” (Lubov Kunakova to Ekaterina Kondaurova)

I even recall reading how a 'pedagogue' was explaining to a dancer where to hold her head at one moment to get the maximum and proper dramatic effect from the stage lighting.

These two quotes also tell a great deal.

"You have to have a love for detail because the beauty of ballet is in the nuances.” (Elena Yevseyeva)

“Dancers may use a gesture that they think transmits the appropriate feeling to the audience, but from the audience’s point of view it doesn’t,” continues Kunakova. “So we make sure that form is ideal, that the artist’s inner feeling coincides with what we see externally.”

In regard to the second quote, a question that comes to mind is the use of videos. Today the artist can view her or himself and not have to rely totally on the 'pedagogue' for what is seen beyond the practice mirrors. Is this important at the Mariinsky, Catherine? Should it be?

There is so much of interest here and hopefully we can discuss it more.

I think the video question is a pertinent and timely but also sensitive one, and I have mixed feelings, and a mixed response on it. First I think there are two roles (at minimum) for videos of ballet today. One is what you mention, which would be the use of filmed rehearsals or performances in order to refine the dancer's approach to his/her art, to a particular role or performance or production. The other is the more common use, which is recording for the purpose of selling DVDs, adding to viewers' collections, allowing people in other locations to see performances by dancers in other countries.

I'll briefly address the first use here. Many dancers do use videos of rehearsals or performances to observe how they look on stage and then further refine their performance. This can be very useful for difficult passages or when they want to achieve a particular effect in some area or when perhaps even stage constrictions mean making adjustments. But this doesn't happen on a daily repetitive basis, simply because it can't. Not every rehearsal and performance is filmed. So that is one limitation. The other limitation is that film still does not capture everything that a live production emits EITHER on the side of the performer or the viewer. So while in theory perhaps a dancer could work with just video, that would not get them very far.

So my feedback is that video is useful but it can't be used in an isolated manner. And given the choice the pedagogue is a necessity.

Which brings to mind another point. EVEN IF every single rehearsal and performance were miraculously recorded and available to every dancer on the planet, the knowledge and input that pedagogues have garnered throughout their own careers, the richness of their experience is invaluable and cannot ever be gained by a dancer simply watching a video of him/herself. That input is golden and it's what makes a difference in the long run. This tradition is, in part, what sets Mariinsky dancers apart from the rest.

The second use of course is on the side of the viewer, and I apply the same issue to this use. Namely that a video recording does not convey the full extent of what is seen by the viewer sitting in the hall. It comes CLOSE in some cases but it's not the same. There is a reason why, for example, journalists and dance critics attend performances live and write reviews based on those, not on recordings. (I realize that video recordings *are* reviewed but that's not what I'm referring to here). You do not see respectable critics from national papers or magazines writing 'well I saw this 3 minute youtube clip and based on that I'm going to comment on this artist." Because that's not done, it's incomplete, it's not fair to the artist (and in most cases the youtube clips are not official recordings). But the same goes for the full length official DVDs sold by companies. Those are reviewed in the capacity of DVDs, and not live performances. The two are separate, very separate in my view.

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